Festorecently dedicated the company’s new Technology Engineering Center (TEC), located just north of Boston. TEC is the company’s first engineering center in the United States devoted to the life sciences.

The choice of the United States for this engineering center was based on this country’s leadership in the global life sciences industry. Locating the researchers and developers in greater Boston was due to the proximity of the area’s research institutions such as MIT, Harvard, and Brown, the confluence of laboratory equipment manufacturers, and the pool of qualified technologists.

The goal of TEC Boston is two-fold:

Pioneer the development of new high speed, high accuracy fluid handling products based on pneumatic principles

Work with individual customers on automated motion and fluid handling solutions that help bring their laboratory equipment to market faster and at less cost.

Increasing the speed and accuracy of screening and sequencing is essential to lowering health care costs

In an automated screening or sequencing machine, small amounts of fluid-based samples are dispensed into shallow wells on what are called in the life sciences microplates. As the number of wells on each microplate has climbed, the amount of fluid in the sample has decreased. This means that the physics of dispensing small sample amounts at ever higher rates has neared its limits.

The Festo team is developing a new approach to fluid dispensing that is based on fast acting valves and pneumatic pressure in addition to using micro-pumping technology. Utilizing pneumatic control and the latest Festo motion technology can, at a minimum, lower subsystem costs and, at a maximum, begin to exceed current speed, volume, and accuracy norms.

Speed and accuracy goals for fluid dispensingThe initial target for the first new Festo products has been the development of pneumatic systems to fill 384 well plates within 15 seconds, handling fluid volumes between 500nL to 5μl. Current systems achieve a coefficient of variation (CV), also known as relative standard deviation (RSD), of less than 2% in a wide variety of applications. A benefit of working with Festo is that equipment manufacturers have a single supplier for an integrated motion and fluid dispensing system.

“For the past year, we’ve been equipping the engineering center in Billerica and hiring and training our team,” notes Dr. Frank Jacob, Head of the Project Unit Medical Devices & Laboratory Automation at Festo. “Festo is combining its latest motion automation used in the manufacturing and processing industries with expertise in pneumatics to create new systems that contribute to lower costs by increasing laboratory output. This technology also enables Festo customers to improve time to market and lower engineering expenditures.”

Festo has been developing components and system solutions for equipment manufacturers specializing in the automation of laboratory processes and the manufacture of medical devices since 2004. Due to double-digit growth, this business area was made a separate division at Festo in 2015. Wolfgang Trautwein, Manager Business Development LifeTech at Festo, will spend extended periods of time in the U.S. during 2019, acting as the company’s ambassador to universities and equipment manufacturers.

Prospect Heights, Illinois-based Heimatec Inc., a supplier of live tooling for the North American machine tool industry, has become part of a new corporation, Platinum Tooling Technologies Inc. The announcement was made by the longtime president of Heimatec, Preben Hansen, who will lead the new company as its president and COO, holding a majority stake in its ownership. Hansen is a 30-year veteran and recognized authority in the machine tool industry for tooling and its applications.

“I’d been pondering this move for some time and, after considerable discussions with Heimatec GmbH, Tecnicrafts Industries, Henninger GmbH, and other principals we represent, it seemed time to make this decision and move forward with the new company,” says Hansen. “The new company will enable us to serve our existing and new market opportunities in a more pro-active fashion.”

Hansen cites the recent expansion of the Chicago area facility, with added office and warehouse space, will allow more staff to be hired and greater inventories to be carried on all lines represented by the new company. The Heimatec products will continue to be the company’s main focus with full commitment to the Tecnicrafts and the other product lines.

According to Hansen, other developments in the works include additional lines of machine tool accessories and related machine components. Throughout the years the company has been adding various other brand names to its roster, most recently the guide bushing and collet line from Tecnicrafts Industries, producers of products made specifically for the Swiss machine tool market. Platinum Tooling will make a further investment to this line with extensive inventory and the purchase and installation of a grinding machine

“Bringing this process in house will improve delivery times and strengthen market position,” Hansen says.

Additional personnel and sales representative firms are being sought to augment the existing team.

Hansen notes that, “nothing will change in our interaction with current customers, reps and distributors. We’ll be enhancing our capabilities, however, with more application engineering, service technicians and staff dedicated to the specific tooling lines we represent. In that way, our value proposition and overall service package to the industry will rise to new heights.”

Tsugami/Rem Sales, the exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools, will host the third annual Technology Center Open House in Fullerton, California, Dec. 4-5, 2018 at the Tsugami/Rem Sales office, located at 1521 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Suite E, Fullerton, California.

The two-day event will consist of presentations by Scott Anthony, business unit manager at Tsugami/Rem Sales and Graham Immerman, Director of sales and marketing at MachineMetrics. Anthony will present on Tsugami/Rem Sales’ latest technology including the new SmartFlex Guide Bushing system for 32mm platforms, Oscillation Cutting, and the Goltenbodt quick-change tooling system. Immerman will present on the MachineMetrics platform and the benefits that big data brings to machining.

“MachineMetrics is excited and honored to share our best-in-class machine monitoring and manufacturing analytics software at this year's Fullerton Open House. For years now we have been working directly with manufacturers and machine builders to improve manufacturing equipment uptime, OEE, and productivity with real-time data and analytics. Together with Tsugami/Rem Sales, our data science team is working closely with the data to deliver optimized preventative and predictive maintenance specific to Tsugami machines. By allowing machines to be monitored remotely and in real-time with our IIoT technology, MachineMetrics is excited to enable Tsugami/Rem Sales and their customers the ability to optimize their machine performance and make confident decisions driven by data," Immerman says.

The following industry partners will be showcased at the Fullerton Open House; ESPRIT CAM Software, Blaser Swisslube, Mesa Tooling, and Eagle Vision and Automation. Tsugami/Rem Sales also welcomes a representative from the Wounded Warrior Project to be present at the event to answer questions about the recent Corporate Sponsorship which was proudly announced at IMTS 2018.

“We look forward to the Fullerton Open House each year; it is a wonderful time for our team to showcase our latest in machine tool technology to Southern California and the surrounding areas. This year, we are especially excited to show the new SS38MH-5AX and the M08J as well as our latest partnership with MachineMetrics and sponsorship of the Wounded Warrior Project,” notes Michael Mugno, vice president, Tsugami/Rem Sales, LLC. “We pride ourselves in the engineering and customer support behind Rem Sales’ products and partnerships and look forward to welcoming all of the open house attendees.”

Hours for the Fullerton Open House are, Tue., Dec. 4, 10:00am PT-4:00pm PT and Wed., Dec. 5, 10:00am PT-3:00pm PT. Lunch will be supplied for all registrants both days.

All attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Tsugami/Rem Sales’ Swiss CNC engineers and local Tsugami specialists. All are encouraged to bring questions, ideas, and drawings of parts for consultation sessions. Representatives from Tsugami West Coast distributor and industry partner, Ellison Technologies will also be available during the event. Ellison Technologies is located in Santa Fe Springs, Califiornia, and can be contacted by phone at 562.949.8311.

Everyone is talking about the digital transformation of industry. Visitors to the Digital Factory halls at HANNOVER MESSE – running April 1-5, 2019 – can discover the driving forces behind this development. The boom in this sector demonstrates clearly the triumph of Industry 4.0 and networking. The companies in Halls 5, 6, 7 and 8 are developing and supplying the prerequisites for what will be the lead theme of the world's foremost industrial technology show in 2019: Integrated Industry – Industrial Intelligence. This refers to the digital networking of humans and machines in the age of artificial intelligence.

"The companies exhibiting at HANNOVER MESSE's Digital Factory are enabling the digital transformation within industry," says Arno Reich, global director Digital Factory in the HANNOVER MESSE team. "It will then become achievable through the cooperation between automation and industrial IT. The speed of this transformation is illustrated by the growing number of alliances between traditional IT suppliers and industrial groups."

Buyers from the mechanical and plant engineering sectors, the automotive and aerospace industries, the construction, metal, plastics, and processing industries, and from electrical engineering and electronics come to HANNOVER MESSE to pave their way to Industry 4.0 – because no manufacturing company nowadays can afford to ignore pattern recognition, neural networks, machine learning, deep learning, or knowledge-based processing. Artificial intelligence (AI) is therefore one of the keynote themes at HANNOVER MESSE. At Digital Factory, the exhibiting companies showcase solutions that learn autonomously from the enormous volume of digitized production data, are self-optimizing, predict machine downtime and significantly accelerate Industry 4.0 processes.

The platform economy is another topic of major importance. It plays a crucial role in mechanical and plant engineering as a basis for the development of new business models and digital services. This is not just about which IoT solution best connects humans, machines and processes and thus forms the ideal operating system for Industry 4.0. For example, digital platforms provide a very direct benefit by reducing transaction costs and facilitating network effects.

Two other topics will be attracting even more attention in 2019. The first is data analytics. This involves software that uses intelligent data analysis to help industry reduce the consumption of energy and resources and at the same time improve the flexibility, agility and quality of production processes. Data analytics solutions can be found throughout the Digital Factory halls. The second topic is blockchain, which will have its own exhibition area at HANNOVER MESSE. Blockchain can be used to verify contracts, monitor supply chains or protect networked systems in the IoT from cyberattacks and disruptions. Blockchain will be located in Hall 6 in the immediate vicinity of the Industrial Security exhibition area and forum. As the use of artificial intelligence increases, the issues of IT security and data sovereignty are, of course, a significant challenge. Companies can work with data only if it is securely and globally available in the long term.

In addition to blockchain and industrial security, other topics in Halls 5 and 6 include engineering software (CAx, PLM), cloud solutions, platforms and services, virtual reality, and additive manufacturing (AM). Hall 7 will showcase business software with MES, ERP, CRM, and DMS as well as SCM solutions, IT solutions and consulting, and embedded systems. Finally, Hall 8 marks the transition to the Automation area featuring the Industry 4.0 Forum, Industry 4.0 initiatives and political platforms, and the SmartFactory/Intelligent Manufacturing area.

The triumph of Industry 4.0 is only possible because of the forward planning undertaken by entrepreneurs, researchers and politicians. It doesn't stop at Industry 4.0, however. Innovation drivers at HANNOVER MESSE's new Industrial Pioneers Summit will therefore be addressing the question of what comes after Industry 4.0 in a discussion on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The aim of the conference is to work out forward-looking developments and scenarios for the time when digitization, artificial intelligence, human-machine collaboration and the platform economy have long become a normality.

In addition, the supporting program at HANNOVER MESSE will include a variety of events designed to increase participants' knowledge in specific areas of the digital factory and enabling them to connect with experts. These include the 11th MES Conference for producers and users in the manufacturing and process industry, the CAE Forum on numerical simulation, 3D visualization and additive manufacturing, and the one-day Additive Manufacturing (AM) Symposium focusing on the use of new 3D printing methods in mechanical engineering and on new hardware and materials in additive manufacturing.

15 Universities teams to compete in fluid power vehicle challenge

National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) contest draws a record number of competitors for the 2018-2019 challenge.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – The 2018-19 NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is off to an exciting start. Coinciding with their senior capstone design courses, fifteen universities have registered to compete in this year’s program.

In the first semester of the Vehicle Challenge, teams gain knowledge in fluid power components, circuits, and systems, and their use in controlling force and motion. They are introduced to the industry judges and mentors, order components from the parts suppliers, and begin planning for the Design and Specification Midway Review.

During this review, students present their initial design and mechanical drawings that illustrate the fluid power control circuits to be created for the vehicle as well as the results from their analysis of fluid flow and expected performance.

University teams are:

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Cleveland State University

Colorado State University

Iowa State University

Kennesaw State University

Montana State University

Murray State University

Purdue Northwest

Purdue University

University of Akron

University of Cincinnati

University of Denver

University of Utah

West Virginia University Inst. of Tech.

Western Michigan University

Judges and mentors are:

Danfoss Power Solutions

FORCE America Inc.

Gates Corp.

HydraForce Inc.

Iowa Fluid Power

Parker Hannifin Corp.

Price Engineering

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions

Woodward Inc.

Program sponsors are:

Bimba Manufacturing - Final competition event host

Eaton Corp. - Parts supplier

LubeTech - Fluid supplier

Parker Hannifin Corp. - Program Sponsor

SunSource - Parts supplier

Source Fluid Power - Parts supplier

Bimba Manufacturing Company, is a gold-level donor in the NFPA Foundation’s Pascal Society. Bimba is a part of IMI Precision Engineering and the competition will be held at the IMI Norgren facility in Littleton, Colorado, in April.